


A morning breaks without bread or fresh-poured milk

by tigriswolf



Series: comment_fic drabbles [161]
Category: White Collar
Genre: Alternate Universe, F/M, Gen, Implied Violence, Secret Identity, Secrets, Serial Killers, implied bad things happening to potentially good people
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-10-10
Updated: 2013-10-10
Packaged: 2017-12-28 23:55:00
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 630
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/998414
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/tigriswolf/pseuds/tigriswolf
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Neal Caffrey is a thief, a forger, and a con-artist. </p><p>(Neal Caffrey is a liar and a lie.)</p>
            </blockquote>





	A morning breaks without bread or fresh-poured milk

**Author's Note:**

> Title: A morning breaks without bread or fresh-poured milk  
> Disclaimer: not my characters; title from Adrienne Rich  
> Warnings: AU; implied violence/bad things  
> Pairings: Peter/Elizabeth  
> Rating: PG13ish  
> Wordcount: 630  
> Point of view: third  
> Prompt: White Collar, Neal, he waits for the day he's free again. Peter thinks he has figured Neal out, but predators can be _very_ patient.

Neal turns the page in _Entertainment Weekly_ (four years out of date) and laughs at the article about the blockbuster-that-wasn't while waiting for Peter to grant him leave to enter the meeting. (It's a forgery case, of course, and Peter is throwing his weight around because NCIS is trying to take the case because of a possibly-related murder.)

When Peter finally signals him, Neal carefully closes the magazine and sets it aside, flips his hat on, and saunters up the stairs. 

.

Most of Neal's dreams involve chains. And cages. 

While he was in prison, he was left alone by the other prisoners and the guards both. A few newcomers tried picking fights, and he had to establish himself in his first week, of course, but Neal was the most dangerous thing locked in there, and none of them were suicidal.

(Well. Not after the first, anyway. And there wasn’t a shred of evidence that linked Neal to that fool’s messy death, but everyone knew.) 

.

June mostly leaves Neal alone, and she never leaves any of her younger grandchildren with him. The fact that he _is_ there, though, means certain parts of the criminal element don’t go near her house. 

Neal Caffrey is a thief. He is a forger. He is a con-artist. 

He spent four years in prison for something very small because it was the _only_ thing they could prove he did. 

Peter Burke’s pet CI is a nice feather in the cap of a very by-the-book and straight-laced agent, and he’s begun to trust Neal. He trusts Neal in his house, with his dog, with delicate operations, and even – and this is the one it takes Neal the longest to believe – with his _wife_. 

When it finally sank in that Peter trusted Neal with Elizabeth’s welfare and life, he had to excuse himself to the bathroom and pinch himself to stop from laughing. 

Oh, Peter. 

.

“How much longer do we have to play nice?” Mozzie asked, half a year into the most dangerous con Neal has ever attempted. 

Neal smiled, slow and dark, and Mozzie looked away. “My time in their system is still monitored,” Neal said, “but I’ve also just left a backdoor in.” 

“Understood,” Mozzie said, and turned the bug back on so they could talk about art and alleged crimes they were actually nowhere near. 

.

When Neal leaves, he will leave nothing behind. Everything will burn. They caught and caged him on a technicality, and when he was finally too bored to stand it, he escaped to ‘chase Kate,’ and playing with the FBI has been almost as much fun as what he did before prison. 

It’s not anymore. The politics had been refreshing, but now they are only annoying, and Mozzie has finished eradicating the actual evidence and putting Neal’s enemies in its place. 

Peter (mostly) trusts him. June (mostly) likes him. The FBI (mostly) believes him to be reformed. Elizabeth laughs with and smiles with him and even hugs him, sometimes. Satchmo can spend hours curled up beside him.

He’s mind-numbingly bored.

.

Neal Caffrey is a thief, and a forger, and a con-artist. He has stolen trust, forged a good man, and conned an entire agency. 

.

Neal Caffrey never existed except on paper, and even that was faked. 

.

“Finally!” Mozzie says and hits ‘enter’ with a flourish and a smile. 

.

Neal Caffrey vanishes on a bright spring morning, turning the world on its head. 

Most of his dreams involve chains and cages, and he thinks it might be time to get back into that. White collar crime is no longer interesting, and there are so many people... who would notice if a few go missing? 

“Here’s the new play,” he tells Mozzie, who doesn’t take a single note. 

Mustn’t leave behind anything incriminating.


End file.
